


War and Peace

by RainbowArches



Category: Star Wars: Shatterpoint - Matthew Stover
Genre: 5 drabbles, Gen, here a sad there a sad everywhere a sad sad, what a rough book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 17:45:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10724163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: Everyone's in bad shape after the events on Haruun Kal.





	War and Peace

Kar Vastor was dead.

Mace felt it, like a light in his head that he hadn’t noticed, winking out.

The last of ghosh Windu. It hits him just as gently. Sort of: _Ah. Okay._ Like the death of a friend of a friend.

He wondered if Depa sensed it. Perhaps she woke up. Perhaps she went with him.

_Close your eyes. Breathe in… fear, jealousy, longing, disappointment… breathe out._

Depa was the same as ever. It was both comforting and disappointing.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

She was still fighting. That was the important thing.

He left.

She didn’t sense it.

 

Nick wore a soldier’s stoicism as effortlessly as an old tunic. He joked and smiled for the younglings but it drained him.

He worked in the archives. Reading about battles past was the closest he could get to a fight of his own for the time being. When asked, he said it was his way of meditating.

He didn’t miss Haruun Kal. He refused.

He _did_ miss not having the time to burn out. No one believed that this respite period was killing him.

_Be patient_ , they said. _Allow yourself to heal._

_How long will that take?_

They never answered.

 

“Virtuous, your dedication is; but rest, you should.”

Mace scrubbed at his eyes for the hundredth time. He blinked, but the room became blurrier and blurrier.

Haruun Kal needed his attention but he shrivelled under his own guilt. When he focused his attention elsewhere he could only kick himself for running from his responsibility.

“Attachment, your guilt is. Release it into the Force, you must. _Know_ this, you do, my old padawan.”

“But is it guilt for my home planet or guilt for Depa?”

“Hmmm.” Yoda’s gimer stick hit the floor with a decisive tap. “Find out together, we will.”

 

Depa’s memories of Chalacta are ghosts of scents and sounds; relics from her infancy. She’s excited to put a face to these memories, but also nervous.

With a deliberate exhale, she releases her trepidation. She allows her excitement to linger a moment longer, then releases that as well. Expectations have no place on this journey.

Master Windu is tense, the hint of a smile on his mouth.

She lays her hands on his upturned palms. Their fingers hook, folding their joined hands into fists. It’s an old, affectionate gesture between them.

She pulls away first.

“I’ll be fine. I promise.”

 

He didn’t know where he was, what had happened or when.

His whole body twitched. Blood pooled around him. From his head, possibly. He should be unconscious from pain alone. He couldn’t decide whether to pass out, throw up, or simply weep.

_Come with me, doshalo._

It took a while for the words to register.

He was slung over someone’s shoulder.

_Kar?_

_Yes._

He must be dead. He wondered what it meant that Kar was the one to escort him into the afterlife.

He wondered what it meant that the pain wasn’t any better. When would the pain stop?

_Soon._

 

 

 

 


End file.
